The redwoods reach into the sky pointing our attention upward. They themselves glorify God because they are a living reminder that Jesus Christ is Lord. He is the living true Son whom God raised from the dead to deliver us from coming wrath, 1Thess. 1:10.
This world has already been judged, a judgment yet to be expereinced but Jesus has satisfied our judgment, if we are in Him. But more than this, while the earth is expereincing a horrific 7 years of tribulation and judgement, we will be attending a wedding, ... ours!
Our life in Christ anticipates consumation of a union. Being Spiritually born of God leads to a fuller spiritual union. The gift of the Holy Spirit within us witnesses our sanctification process leading us into God’s fullness. We bring into His presence the gift of righteous fruit from His life in us even while in exile and we will be His bride!
When the Bride is ready, Jesus Christ will lift Her up, out from the earth, while coming down from heaven, to meet her in the air. Meanwhile, on the earth, the horrific tribulation of 7 years will begin, becoming more intense during the last 3½ years. When this 7 year judgment is complete, we, His Bride, will return with our Lord and King, to rule 1,000 years over His earthly Kingdom. This will be quantum glory for mere humans, but we will be glorifed members of God’s family, dwelling in the presence of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
The Bride is not yet ready to be taken from the earth. She is in preparation by the indwelling Holy Spirit of God. He, the Holy Spirit, is not only purifying God’s children but bringing into God’s family those whom will complete His family Body. During this preperation time we are also called to purify ourselves by the person of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.
None of us know when Christ will come but we are to be dilligently tending to righteousness and truth. God has already sanctified us, set us apart for His purpose, while we are to sanctify ourselves by putting to death our sinful heart and mind while putting on our new man made in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. These are ways we bring glory to our Lord and in this process we ourselves are being glorified inside out!
We put to death self things Jesus has already nailed to the cross. These are things becoming apparent as the light of the Holy Spirit reveals self rooted in our soul. Self is in our heart and mind warring against us but its power over us has been put to death since being created new in Christ Jesus. But now they have become hostile to us since being we have been made righteous in Christ Jesus. Our spirit is acutally joined with the Spirit of God within us giving us resurrection power through Jesus to be holy putting to death the things of our fleshly self.
We are called to perform this sanctification task anticipating the completion of Christ’s Body. It is an opportunity to share the suffering of Jesus as He dealt with living in a human body while being holy and righteous. He made us righteous also, by new birth, and gives us the power to live holy in sinful bodies.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believer that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has domion over him. For the death he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. –Romans 6:6-12.
Our life in Him is only understood through our death with Him. His resurrection power is visble through the things we put death. He became like us so we can become like Him.
This is the essence of love. Love summarizes the why and how Jesus Christ is Lord and how we can glorify God the Father. What Jesus has done is so outrageous it can not penetrate man’s mind. It is the pith of agape love! It makes the love of God , in Christ, visible to others because He is in us. Love is the essence of God and it is who we are in Him! It is His life in us making Himself visible to others through us.
The visiblility of His resurrection power penetrates our body’s fleshly soul. We receive spiritual vision. Our new birth is Spiritual and with Spiritual eyes we begin to bring to focus into God’s truth. If we abide in God’s truth, John tells us, we shall have the knowledge of expereincing truth in our soul. This is an amazing reality! Truth is in Jesus penetating our very soul when we choose to walk in His light, in Him! We are like babes Spiritually discovering His truth. This is who we are once born of God. The preparation of the bride continues in us until that final day, ... coming soon!
God conquered death and darkness. His Spiritual light shines on our mortal path so we can walk in the darkness of this world. He has already provided our victory so we can walk in it! Jesus Christ is Lord! This is a reality already ours to claim.
We often speak of resurrection power, but the power to create something out of nothing taxes our imagination. This is a huge leap out of worldliness and is how we should consider God’s creation of new life in us, Ephesians 4:24. This passage instructs us that His creation in us is in His image just as it was in Adam and ... in true righteousness and holiness. Our new creation within us is an eternal, righteous life with resurection power. It is a package deal! We become the abiding place of God’s own Holy Spirit including His resurrection power. But it is more than that, it is His life!
A small seed growing into a giant redwood is the power and life ready to deal with the darkness in our soul. This is God’s life creating power. It is sourced before our origin, before life became life, it is this same eternal life within each believer. The seed of life contained in a small eighth of an inch hard shell that becomes a massive 300ft tall, 15ft thick at its base, redwood is in us in even greater proportions. There are glories to be revealed in us, penetrating boundaries of mortal flesh.
Several words are transalted ‘’power’’ in our New Testament. The two predominate ones are ‘’dunamis,’’ from which we get dynamite, and ‘’exousia,’’ which is a word for authority or the right to rule. Jesus Christ our Lord has both. He owns heaven and earth with authority over both. Satan has designated authority. His power is limited within the confines of God’s will and permission. Satan does not have ‘’dunamis’’ power but he does have ‘’exousia’’ authority.
The believer, on the other hand, is restricted only by faith, Luke 17:6, Matt 17:20. God’s power is manefested in His new creation within the believer and God’s grace continues producing righteousness, imputed and real, through the effectiveness of truth by the believer’s faith. We are already children of God, heirs of God and the Bride of our redeemer, Jesus Christ our Lord.
This is who we are in Christ. This is how we are able to glorify God as well as enter into His glory. We read in Paul’s prayer to the Thessalonians:
‘’To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ’’
- 2Thessalonians 1:11-12
This should be the daily prayer of us all. This is difinetly on our drill down list! If the entire Bible could be reduced to a single passage, this would be a contender. Notice the essential issues are worthy of His calling and our good work and purpose being fulfilled by His power so that ... THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IS GLORIFIED IN US and WE ARE GLORIFIED IN OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.
This sumerizes what Grace Notes is all about. It is about the completed work of our Lord Jesus Christ, on the cross and out of the grave, having its intended work within our vessels of flesh and clay. That means allowing His resurrected power to be seen in our submission.
It is not about us at all! It is about our Lord Jesus Christ. It is about letting Him complete His work in us and allowing His intended purpose include our personal participation.
Glory is a view of Him and who He is. Waiting for us is an eternal weight of glory (2Cor. 4:17) because we are to be much more than occupants in a heavenly abiding place, we are to be the Bride of Christ! The glory includes the work He completes in us, His inheritance, because we are the work of His hands, Eph. 1:18.
The Thessalonians were enduring spiritual affliction and persecutions. These obsticles caused them to grow in thier love toward each other and to depend upon faith. So it was they were growing in both love and faith. This is evidence, Paul says, of God’s righteous judgement to make us worthy of us being in Christ. Our acts of faith glorify God and in return He continues to make us more worthy of his call.
But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. -2Cor. 4:7
The righteous shall live by faith, everything is from God and nothing from us!
‘’So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.’’ - 1Corinthians 10:31.